


There is No Beginning to the Story

by spurious



Category: Kanjani8 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-06
Updated: 2011-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-24 08:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/261465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spurious/pseuds/spurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an AU where the members of Kanjani8 have superpowers. They may or may not fight crime, but that's not really important.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There is No Beginning to the Story

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of those things that I'm TOTALLY NOT WRITING but somehow ended up writing a lot of, and...I felt like I had enough of it not!written to not!post it. Please forgive the lack of any actual plot? If you're bothered by death, skip everything under the last italicized subheading (I fully support that as a valid/even better reading of this fic).

_there is no beginning to the story (but this is as good as any)_

Maru wakes up in the middle of the night, feeling hot. He keeps his eyes closed against the light in the room, hoping to fall back asleep after he pushes off his blankets, but when he tries, he realizes the blankets aren't there. When he opens his eyes, he sees that the entire bed is ablaze, flames surrounding him but somehow not burning him.

He screams.

***

Ryo's climbing up the side of his family's apartment building, clinging to the drainpipe and hoping he'd left his window unlocked. He's almost there when the pipe creaks, sways a little, and then there's a snapping sound and he's falling, three stories down.

There's barely enough time for Ryo's life to flash before his eyes before he hits the ground. He lies there, waiting for the pain, or the white light, but it doesn't come. There's a bit of a dull ache in his bones, but it doesn't feel that bad. He moves a little, straightening his leg experimentally, and when it doesn't feel broken he just stands up.

That's when he notices the small crowd that's gathered around him.

***

Hina's just settled into bed, blankets arranged perfectly, pillow fluffed just right, when he decides he wants some water. His water bottle sits by his gym bag, just out of reach. Hina stares at it, wishing he could somehow make it come to him. He remembers watching Star Wars with Yoko the other day, Luke using the Force to bring his lightsaber to him.

 _Use the Force,_ he thinks, still staring at the bottle. When it actually does start to move, he's convinced he's just fallen asleep and is dreaming it.

***

"Okay, our next presentation will be from," the teacher looks down at the class list, "Ohkura-kun. Please come to the front."

 _Maybe_ , Ohkura thinks, _if I pretend I'm not here, no one will see me._ He slouches in his seat, vainly hoping not to be noticed.

"Ohkura-kun?" the teacher says.

Ohkura sighs, getting up to face his doom.

"Does anyone know where Ohkura-kun is?" the teacher says, sounding confused.

Ohkura opens his mouth to say something, then snaps it shut.

 _Holy shit,_ he thinks.

***

"Hina," Yoko says, hand clamped on his shoulder. "I think I can read people's thoughts."

And then, a split-second before Hina opens his mouth, Yoko hears it: _this guy is so weird._ He waits for Hina to say something different from what he's just thought, but all he says is, "You are so weird."

"I heard that," Yoko says, "I heard you thinking it before you said it!"

This time there's no delay, Yoko hears it like surround sound, in front of him and inside his head: "That's ridiculous."

***

After Yasu first really figures out his power, he spends a month traveling under a series of assumed identities, trying out the different personalities that come with different faces and bodies. It's only when he finally comes home and has to look at pictures in order to get himself back to normal that he realizes the full depth of the power.

***

When Subaru wakes up on a hospital bed with no memory of how he got there, he thinks maybe he'd just had a particularly bad night of drinking. It's not until he sits up and sees the tag attached to his toe, the row of very, very still people around him, that he realizes he's woken up in the morgue.

 

 _not quite the beginning, but the beginning in some sense_

The first week after Yoko's power surfaces is brutal. He can't figure out how to turn it off, the constant barrage of other people's thoughts assaulting him. After three days he's lost any faith he had in the goodness of people, having heard firsthand the difference between what they say and what they think. He's had almost every one of his worst fears about people's opinions of him confirmed, sometimes in excruciating detail.

When Hina comes to visit he's shut himself up in his room, blasting music and refusing to see anyone.

 _Let me in,_ Hina thinks, as loudly as he can. The music is turned down a bit, and Yoko shouts through the door.

"Fuck off!"

 _You have to come out sometime,_ Hina thinks, and Yoko's response this time is more of a scream than a shout.

"Get out of my head!"

His voice breaks at the end of the sentence, and Hina sits down against the door, taking a deep breath and emptying his mind.

***

Ryo meets Subaru at an underground boxing match when he's 18. Subaru's got an aura about him, the sort of effortlessly dangerous thing Ryo's been working really hard trying to cultivate. Ryo watches him enter the ring with breathless anticipation.

"It was kind of a shock," Ryo will say, years later, "when I realized you had no idea how to fight."

***

The first time Subaru and Yasu have sex, Yasu looks completely different, and they don't know each other.

When Hina introduces the two of them a few days later, Subaru can't figure out why Yasu keeps blushing and tripping over his words.

***

Yasu's the one who brings Ohkura into the group. He comes home one day and calls everyone into the living room, looking excited.

"I found someone else like us," he says. "He can turn invisible! I think he'd be really good to have around."

"Have you actually talked to him yet?" Hina asks.

Yasu blushes. "No, I just…saw him," he admits. "But if he's not, you know, working for someone already?"

Yasu fixes them with a puppy-eyed look.

"Sure, fine," they say, in unison.

 

 _that ever-mysterious middle_

Ohkura's sitting at the kitchen table, invisible, with a huge plate of curry in front of him when Subaru walks in. He's stretching, cracking his back and neck and knuckles. His hair is held up in a messy ponytail, flyaway strands around his face. He's usually hungry when he comes back from the dead. He opens the fridge, peering in, then sniffs at the air and turns around, looking at the plate. He reaches for the spoon.

"Touch that," Ohkura says, "and I'll find a way to make you die permanently."

Subaru jumps back, eyes wide.

"I hate it when you do that," he grumbles.

***

"Hit me," Ryo says, an easy smile on his face.

Subaru raises his eyebrows. "Why?" As Subaru sees it, there's no real need for him to be able to fight, when it's mostly his job to be distracting and possibly get shot or blown up. 

"If you can fight," Ryo says, "maybe you won't have to go and get killed so often."

Subaru shrugs. "I don't mind it," he says. It's mostly true: he's perfectly fine with dying, it's just the excruciating pain he doesn't like. 

Ryo's mouth twists. "I do," he mumbles, so quiet Subaru's not sure he's meant to hear it. 

***

The light from the door spills out onto the balcony, bathing Subaru in a warm, weak glow. He leans over, looking down, and reaches for his cigarettes. He already has one in his mouth when he realizes he's forgotten his lighter.

"Maru," he calls, poking his head inside, "I need a light."

Maru comes around the corner, smiling. He's dressed for bed, a pair of ratty pajama pants and no shirt, and his hair is still a little damp from the bath. He steps out onto the balcony and snaps his fingers. A little flame springs to life over his thumb and forefinger, and Subaru leans in, lighting the cigarette. Maru shakes his hand out and the flame disappears.

"Thanks," Subaru says, after a long drag.

Maru shrugs. He doesn't move to leave, and Subaru offers him the cigarette.

"No thanks," he says.

Maru always says no, but Subaru always offers anyway.

***

After watching Ryo take punch after punch in a fight, just because he can, Hina decides he needs to learn how to dodge a hit.

They go out to a field by a construction site, a place with rocks and debris piled everywhere.

"I'm gonna send some rocks at you," Hina says. "I want you to dodge them."

"Why?" Ryo says.

"Because," Hina answers, exasperated, "you're not Subaru. It might be harder to kill you, but it doesn't mean it can't be done. I'd prefer if it didn't happen because you let someone pound you to death."

"Fine," Ryo says, cracking his knuckles. "Come on."

***

Maru leaves one afternoon without telling anyone where he's going.

"He's got a date," Yoko says, with the assurance born of years of listening to people's thoughts.

"Really?" asks Yasu.

"I don't know," Yoko laughs, "I wasn't listening. And get that song out of your head, it's driving me crazy."

Maru comes back two hours later, looking dejected.

"It _was_ a date, wasn't it?" Yoko says. He pauses for a moment, then winces. "Oh…ouch."

Maru shoots Yoko an angry look, and he backs off.

Yasu only thinks for a moment before he goes to his room, pulling out a sheet of the cute stationary he bought the other day. He writes down a time and the name of a nearby cafe and slips it under Maru's door.

Yasu shows up dressed to the nines, a face and body pulled from the cover of a fashion magazine (with some minor adjustments; Yasu knows Maru's taste). Maru's face lights up when he waves Yasu over, a smile spreading over his features.

"You didn't have to," he says, blushing as he pulls out a chair for Yasu.

Yasu grins. "I just wanted an excuse to wear this outfit."

***

It takes longer than expected to perfect what Maru calls "The Shin-chan Cannon of Firey Doom;" there's a bit of delicate timing involved, making sure they're working in sync so Maru doesn't set the stuff on fire too early, so Hina's close enough to control the movements but not so close that he gets burned. By the time they're finished for the day, there's a pile of burnt-out debris in the field, and Maru is dripping with sweat, his shirt soaked through. That doesn't stop him from throwing an arm around Hina as they head home, though.

***

"What's it like?" Yoko asks one night, when he's sprawled out on the floor, PSP in his hand. He looks up at Ohkura on the couch. His mouth doesn't move, but Yoko can hear his response clearly (they joke that Ohkura's too lazy to bother speaking, but sometimes Yoko thinks it's true).

 _It's nice, sometimes,_ Ohkura begins, and Yoko hears a weird sort of jumbling as Ohkura gathers his thoughts before continuing, _but…not really all it's cracked up to be._

Yoko nods.

"I get that."

 

 _the beginning of the end_

Hina's watched Subaru die more times than he can count; seen him shot, stabbed, blown up, thrown off of buildings, and every time he knows he'll come back, but every time there's a tiny part of Hina that worries he won't.

***

"Yasu," Ryo mumbles, tugging him close enough that Yasu can feel his breath hot on his ear, "you need to get out of here."

Yasu hears the low, serious tone of Ryo's voice, the way his breath is coming faster, and doesn't hesitate.

***

After the explosion, everyone scattered in twos and threes, knowing they'll meet up later, if they survive. Ohkura watched Yoko and Hina go one way; Subaru, Ryo, and Yasu another, before Maru tugged on his arm and they ran off in the direction of the forest.

They've gone far enough that they're probably safe, but also very lost. Ohkura sinks down against a tree, sighing.

"We're going to die out here," he says. The sun has gone down and he's starting to shiver, the cool air chilling his sweat-soaked clothes.

"We'll be fine," Maru says, though his smile is a little forced. He sits down next to Ohkura, though, and the heat radiating from his skin makes Ohkura feel a bit less cold.

 

 _the end (or, seven sentences about death)_

The doctor says, "We're going to do all that we can," but Yoko can hear what she's thinking.

Subaru holds Yasu in his arms long after his breath has stopped, until his skin starts to cool.

The first thing Yasu notices when he sees Ohkura materialize in front of him is all of the blood.

Subaru holds his breath and waits, hoping for a silence that won't come.

They've all seen Ryo get shot before, seen him throw punches as blood seeped from his stomach, so it seems unreal when Subaru watches him go down.

Hina shoves Yoko out of the way in time, but even he can't stop a train.

The fact that the building's gone up in flames around him doesn't worry Maru, until he realizes he's trapped in the tiny room, breathing smoke.


End file.
